St. Vincent de Paul Teacher-Scholar
Award Lecture - August 31, 2004
Elizabeth Brondolo
St. John's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Department of
Psychology
brondole@stjohns.edu
I am a behavioral scientist, and my particular research area
involves interpersonal relationships and their effect on health; in
particular the health of the cardiovascular system. We investigate
the way social stressors like work conflict or racism, poverty, and
immigration status affect interpersonal relationships and
consequently affect cardiovascular function. Today, I wanted to
talk about relationships in teaching and how some models from
social psychology can be pertinent to our mission as teachers.
Teaching occurs inside a relationship, and when that
relationship is good the student and the teacher can be absorbed in
the process of learning. The student is focused on the material,
and the teacher is focused on the process of transmitting knowledge
and facilitating the growth of understanding. When the
teaching relationship doesn't work, then the participants (the
students and the teacher) often end up focused on the people in the
relationship. This includes themselves and their own emotional
needs, as well as the other person. The actions can be
perceived as negative. Less energy is spent on mastering
information, skills and ideas, and more energy is spent on
controlling negative emotions. On a behavioral level you see
avoidance - students leave homework undone, they study at the last
minute, and they don't participate in class.
Relationships go better when teachers recognize the role of
emotion in the teacher-student interchange. It's not just facts and
ideas that are communicated in the classroom; attitudes and
feelings are communicated as well. Understanding these emotions and
their causes can help teachers pace the presentation of
information. It also shows negotiating rough spots in the
communication process.
Where do negative emotions come
from?
Learning new material or skills can evoke a whole range of negative
emotions. This can include frustration, anxiety, humiliation,
or anger. You have to realize that you don't know something
valuable, and that other people have knowledge that you don't yet
have. You have to confront the potential for failure or
frustration as you stumble in acquiring new skills.
The literature on social comparison theory provides us with some
more systematic guidance in thinking about teaching relationships.
Being in a classroom (actually being anywhere) elicits social
comparisons. Social comparisons are evaluations we make in
which we compare our own attributes or skills to those of
others. They can be real or imagined. When we make
downward comparisons, i.e. compare ourselves to those less
fortunate or skilled, we feel good. When we are making upward
comparisons we see others doing better than we are. We
imagine a perfect person. When we compare ourselves to that
person, we don't necessarily feel very happy.
You might be making social comparisons right now. You might
be thinking that you could give a better speech or wear better
clothes. At this moment, even if you are absorbed in what I am
saying some part of your brain is making a comparison or has made
one recently.
If you stop for a moment and think about how you feel during
this talk, or maybe during other talks, including conferences or
meetings, you will have some intuitive sense of the ways social
comparison processes have the power to influence minute to minute
flows of emotion. In turn, these variations in emotions influence
our ability to pay attention and process information.
If something about the situation causes you to feel bad or
resentful, you get distracted, because you have to manage the
feeling. If you feel good, but not overconfident, you are more
likely to get engaged and interested.
We are biologically prepared to make these comparisons - to
quickly and not even necessarily consciously-size up where we stand
relative to others.
Some people, particularly those who believe that they can or are
doing well, are willing to risk exposure to social comparison.
We've all seen how competent students sit toward the front and
participate in class. This participation provides these students
with opportunities to evaluate their own performance and get
feedback about their competence. If the bulk of feedback is
positive, these students will generally keep taking the risks
necessary to learn new things.
People who perceive themselves to be less competent often sit
toward the back of the class and avoid participating or working
directly with the teacher. This is also related to avoiding
painful social comparison and feeling anxious or
defeated. This isn't such a productive strategy and it can
create a destructive cycle.
There is also the fear of the finding out you don't know as much
as you wished you did or of not having the status you
hoped. This can cause people to avoid learning the things that
would enable them to change their actual status. Fear deters
risk. Anticipating the possibility that you will be
embarrassed or incompetent can create as much distress as actually
being embarrassed.
What can lead to this negative
anticipation?
A number of different factors: If you come to college from a small
high school where you were a big fish in a little pond, it can be
painful to discover that there are other smart people out
there. Our research has also shown that if you have
experienced a lifetime of racism, you tend to feel more
uncomfortable in social situations, which may entail perceiving
social interactions as threatening and exclusionary. This is true
across ethnic groups and genders. Students who are the first in
their family to attend college may be afraid of risk. They have
fewer academic resources at home to draw on if they get
stuck. It's less embarrassing to ask your mom or dad for help
than to show a teacher that you don't understand. Students who
simply don't believe they are good in your subject (they are okay
in Math, but English is really hard) may be more likely to avoid
situations requiring comparisons. Their belief might include doing
poorly. If students have a very limited understanding of the steps
involved in learning a particular subject (like Chemistry or
Calculus), they may jump to conclusions. This can increase the
likelihood that they may not be able to master the materials.
The pace at which each student absorbs information is partly
governed by their ability to manage the stress of learning. The
teaching relationship can buffer the student against the
distraction of those feelings. This relationship can encourage the
student to risk. Risk involves being aware of his or her own
limitations and possibilities and accepting the challenge to learn
new ideas as well as new skills. Trust engenders risk.
There are a variety of strategies for using the teacher-student
relationship to support a students' willingness to risk. The
success of each strategy very much depends on the student's needs
and the teacher's personal style. Not everyone wants to think about
or talk about feelings. However, I think everyone can recognize
these emotions. Each of you has had your own experiences going to
graduate school. You know how you handled stress, fear of failure,
and the feelings that accompany accepting where you stand in a
professionally competitive world. Everyone who has been successful,
and all of you have been, has generated some strategies for
managing these feelings. I won't offer lots of advice just a few
general thoughts.
Simply recognizing and articulating that learning a particular
subject can be difficult is helpful and empowering. Encouraging and
rewarding expressions of ignorance is useful. I explicitly reward
students for saying "I don't understand" or asking for
clarifications. I ask the teaching assistants in my research
methods class to make sure that students change their seats each
class. I try to insure that students who normally hide in the back
sit up front and participate.
Most importantly, people can stay focused on the task, and
confident that they can overcome obstacles if the work seems
doable. Breaking down assignments and challenges can help people
figure them out and grow progressively. Building on their own
accomplishments, the students may be more likely to perceive the
risk of growth as reasonable and worthwhile.
My favorite story of the benefits of breaking down a complex
task is what happened when I applied for this job. I actually
applied to run the psych clinic and met with Rafael Javier. He
didn't end up hiring me, because I wasn't yet licensed. A year
later, the night before I took the licensing exam, when I was 7 1/2
months pregnant with my second child, Rafael called me and said a
regular faculty line was opening up. He asked if I would
apply. I said OK, but what I really thought was "No way, I am
not smart enough, I really don't know what I am doing. All the
academics I know are much smarter and more competitive than I am."
Just to be polite, I called the chair, Jeff Fagen at the time. I
questioned how to go about applying.
Jeff let me ask about nitty-gritty details of how to go about
applying and gave me advice on preparing a vita. This, of course,
had almost nothing in terms of publications. He helped me think
through my job talk. Jeff set a supportive tone to the relationship
and provided concrete guidance about the steps required to complete
the goal. I became willing and able to apply. I have to say "thank
you" because it has led to a host of very productive and happy
relationships here at St Johns. All of which have continued to
allow me to stay focused on work and not be distracted. The work
has been very interesting and fun for me and my students.